NAKANO Lab (Evolutionary Zoology)
University of Tsukuba, Shimoda Marine Research Center
If you have information concerning Xenoturbella or Placozoa in Japan, or would like to collect them in Japan, please contact us!
Our lab is focused in the diversity of marine invertebrates, evolution of metazoans, and body plan evolution in deuterostomes. We study the evolution and development of several non-model animals, such as Placozoa, Xenoturbella, and acoels.
For detailed information, please read the Research page.
NEWS
October 10th, 2024: Our research on the sea slug H. festiva was featured in the NHK Morning News.
October 10th, 2024: An article in Japanese describing our research on the sea slug H. festiva was published in 'Children's Science vol.11'.
October 7th, 2024: Articles describing our research on the sea slug H. festiva were published in Science Japan in English and in Keguan Japan in Chinese.
October 3rd, 2024: An article in Japanese describing our research on the sea slug H. festiva was published in Fukui Newspaper.
October 1st-4th, 2024: Hosted the 25th JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey held at Shimoda Marine Research Center, University of Tsukuba.
September 26th, 2024: An article in Japanese describing our research on the sea slug H. festiva was published in KoKaNet.
September 12-14th, 2024: Participated in the 95th Annual Meeting of the Zoological Society of Japan. Nakano and former member Bam each gave oral presentations.
August 24th, 2024: An article in Japanese describing our research on the sea slug H. festiva was published in NHK Shizuoka website, and was also featured in the NHK News.
August 23rd, 2024: An article in Japanese describing our research on the sea slug H. festiva was published in Tsukuba Science News.
July 21st, 2024: New paper on sea slug Hypselodoris festiva development was published. A web page and a press release about the paper are present in the University of Tsukuba website.
June 30th, 2024: Nakano was one of the authors of the newly published 'Illustrated NEO POCKET Plankton'.
June 20th, 2024: Hayashi and Nakano were contributors of the newly published 'Ecology of Sea Slugs & Nudibranchs Illustrated'.
June 19th, 2024: Nakano gave an invited lecture at the 57th Japanese Society of Developmental Biologists.
April 20th, 2024: An article in Japanese describing our research was published in 'Saibou The CELL'.
April 1st, 2024: The Members page was updated.
March 16th, 2024: Kawakami made a poster presentation at the 76th Annual Meeting of the Zoological Society of Japan Kanto Branch.
March 12th, 2024: Provided X. japonica specimen for the special exhibit 'The unknown world of marine invertebrates' at the National Museum of Nature and Science. The exhibit is held until June 16th.
January 26th, 2024: An article describing our research was released in the University of Tsukuba College of Biological Sciences website.
January 4th, 2024: Hayashi made a poster presentation at the 2024 Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting.
October 24th-27th, 2023: Nakano participated in a research cruise on the trainingship Seisuimaru, Mie University.
October 1st, 2023: One new member joined our lab!
September 6-9th, 2023: Participated in the 94th Annual Meeting of the Zoological Society of Japan, and Nakano made an oral presentation.
July 26th, 2023: Hayashi made a poster presentation at the EMBO/The Company of Biologists Workshop 'Trans-Scale Biology' using exotic non-model organisms.
June 26th, 2023: Hayashi made an oral presentation at the 2023 Annual Meeting of The Malacological Society of Japan and received the Best Student Presentation Award.
May 30th-June 2nd, 2023: Participated in the 24th JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey held at Sugashima Marine Biological Laboratory, Nagoya University.
May 20th, 2023: Nakano participated in the Open Campus: Biology Degree Program, University of Tsukuba.
May 8th, 2023: Nakano talked about Xenoturbella on the University of Tsukuba Podcast (in Japanese).
April 27th, 2023: Hayashi made a guest appearance in the Live Streaming Program " Solar Power in the Sea・Observing Photosynthesis of Sea Slugs for 200 hours- NIBB x Niconico".
April 1st, 2023: The Members page was updated.
February 17th, 2023: New paper on Xenoturbella reproduction was published. A web page and a press release about the paper is present in the University of Tsukuba website.
February 7th, 2023: Article on the JAMBIO Coastal Organisms Joint Survey special exhibition appeared in Mainichi-shinbun newspaper.
February 3rd, 2023: Our paper describing a new species of acoels was featured in the homepage of USACO Corporation.
February 1st, 2023: A special exhibition "Investigating Marine Life! -Introduction of JAMBIO Coastal Organisms Joint Survey-" will be held at the Shirahama Aquarium, Kyoto University to display the results of the JAMBIO Coastal Organisms Joint Survey.
Venue: Shirahama Aquarium, Kyoto University
Dates: February 1st to May 14th, 2023
November 20th, 2022: A book chapter on placozoan diversity was published in 'Marine Invertebrate Diversity'.
November 4th, 2022: A press release was made on the new paper on sea pen evolution, led by Dr. Yuka Kushida, Rissho Univ.
September 21st, 2022: New paper on sea pen evolution, led by Dr. Yuka Kushida, Rissho Univ., was published.
September 7-10th, 2022: Participated in the 93rd Annual Meeting of the Zoological Society of Japan.
Nakano and former member Bam gave invited lectures, and Nakano also made an oral presentation.
June 9th-10th, 2022: Participated in the 23rd JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey held at Misaki Marine Biological Station, the University of Tokyo.
May 29th, 2022: Hayashi made a presentation at the 91st Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Parasitology.
April 19th, 2022: Our review on JAMBIO and JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Surveys was featured in the BioOne Vista April 2022.
April 19th, 2022: Article on the new species of acoels appeared in newspapers such as the Fukui Shimbun, Chugoku Shimbun, Ehime Shimbun, and Kochi Shimbun.
April 4th, 2022: Our paper describing a new species of acoels was featured in the Top and Trending Research in BioOne Complete, April 2022.
April 1st, 2022: The Members page was updated.
March 22nd, 2022: Hayashi gave a poster presentation at the Support for Pioneering Initiated by the Next Generation (JST×UT Fellowship) Poster Session
March 21st, 2022: Article on the new species of acoels appeared in the Mid-Japan Economist Newspaper.
March 5th, 2022: Isowa gave a presentation at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Zoological Society of Japan Kanto Branch.
February 5th, 2022: Nakano was one of the guest editors for the special issue 'Diversity of Coastal Organisms Around Japan' of Zoological Science.
February 1st, 2022: New review on JAMBIO and JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Surveys was published online.
January 28th, 2022: New paper on environmental DNA was published online.
January 19th, 2022: New paper describing a new species of acoels was published, work mainly done by a former graduate student Asai-san. A press release and a webpage about the paper is present in the University website.
January 4th, 2022: Dr. Hiroshi Kajihara, Hokkaido University, named a species of nemertean after Nakano. I am very honored, thank you so much!
October 6th, 2021: Review on the state of taxonomic studies of marine invertebrates in Japan was published online.
September 2nd, 2021: Participated in the 92nd Annual Meeting of the Zoological Society of Japan.
Hayashi, Nakano, and former member Miyazawa made poster presentations online.
July 9th, 2021: A book chapter 'Xenoturbellida' was published in 'Invertebrate Zoology: A Tree of Life Approach'.
June 3rd, 2021: Nakano was a guest teacher at Shimoda Elementry School.
March 25th, 2021: An article (in Japanese) on sea urchins in Noto was published in 'Report of the Noto Marine Center'.
February 9th, 2021: Exhibition displaying results from the JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Surveys is held.
Venue: Kannonzaki Nature Museum
Dates: February 9th to August 31st, 2021
November 30th, 2020: Our paper on a new species of nemerteans collected from the Izu coast was published.
October 8th, 2020: Our paper on mitochondrial genome evolution of placozoans was released in
Genome Bio. Evol. as an Advance article.
September 29-30th, 2020: Nakano gave an online intensive course at Hokkaido University.
Special Lecture in Biology I 'Evolutionary zoology with non-model organisms'
September 5th, 2020: Participated in the 91st Annual Meeting of the Zoological Society of Japan.
Hayashi and Nakano each made poster presentations online.
August 15th, 2020: An article (in Japanese) on crinoid development was published in the journal 'Kaiyo to Seibutsu'.
May 6th, 2020: Two chapters were published in 'Japanese Marine Life: A Practical Training Guide in Marine Biology'.
April 1st, 2020: Updated the Members page.
March 16th, 2020: An article (in Japanese) about our research was released online at 'KAKENHI topics'.
January 15th, 2020: Our bulletin paper (in Japanese) was released online.
'Benthic deep-sea fauna in south of the Kii Strait and the Sea of Kumano, Japan'
January 6th, 2020: One new member joined our lab!
December 6th, 2019: Article (in Swedish) on Xenoturbella appeared in the Havsutsikt website.
November 30th, 2019: Nakano gave a talk on Xenoturbella at the Izu Peninsula Geopark Geo-cafe.
November 29th, 2019: Nakano gave a talk on the JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Surveys at the 6th JAMBIO Forum.
November 18-21st, 2019: Participated in the 22nd JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey held at
Noto Marine Laboratory, Kanazawa University.
October 11th, 2019: A book chapter by Nakano, 'Development of Xenoturbellida' was published.
October 7-9th, 2019: Participated in the 21st JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey held at
Seto Marine Biological Laboratory, Kyoto University.
September 18th, 2019: Nakano gave a seminar at the 8 Universities Joint Marine Course held at
Mukaishima Marine Biological Laboratory, Hiroshima University.
September 12-14th, 2019: Participated in the 90th Annual Meeting of the Zoological Society of Japan:
Nakano gave a talk at symposium S1 'Major transitions in animal evolution':
「Xenoturbella and the origin of bilateral symmetry」
Nakano organized a symposium S16:
'Marine Invertebrates -Gold Mine of the Information on Life Sciences VI-'
Takatani and Asai each made oral presentations.
Miyazawa gave a talk at symposium S16.
August 7th, 2019: Our paper on applying microCT on marine invertebrates was published in J. Vis. Exp.
July 21st, 2019: Nakano gave a talk at the 2019 Zoological Society of Japan Kanto Branch Open Lectures.
July 18th, 2019: Nakano gave a Keynote Lecture at the Shinkishi Hatai International Marine Biology Course 2019.
June 19th, 2019: Nakano was one of the contributors in the newly published ZukanNEO Aquatic Organisms.
June 3rd, 2019: Our paper on the phylogenetic position of Xenacoelomorpha was published in Current Biology.
May 27th, 2019: Dr. Kakui, Hokkaido University & Dr. Shimada, Keio University named a species of nematode after Nakano. I am very honored, thank you so much!
May 8-10th, 2019: Participated in the 20th JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey held at SMRC.
April 1st, 2019: One new member joined our lab!
March 26th, 2019: Nakano gave a lecture at the GTR/IGER Seminar at Nagoya University.
March 16th, 2019: Nakano gave a lecture at the 4th Izu Peninsula Geopark Academic Research Presentation Meeting.
March 9th, 2019: Takatani and Asai made presentations at the 71st Annual Meeting of the ZSJ Kanto Branch.
Asai was awarded the 'Best Poster Award'.
February 21-22nd, 2019: Participated in the 19th JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey held at
Misaki Marine Biological Station, the University of Tokyo.
February 4th, 2019: Our paper on an orthonectid parasitizing Xenoturbella was published in The Biological Bulletin.
January 8-27th, 2019: A specimen of X. japonica was on display at the National Museum of Nature and Science.
January 12th, 2019: Nakano gave an invited talk at the Union of the Japanese Societies for Systematic Biology
December 15th, 2018: Nakano gave an talk at the SMRC Open Day 'Placozoa: animals without nerves or muscles'.
December 12-13th, 2018: Participated in the 18th JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey held at SMRC.
For past NEWS:
December 8th, 2018: Nakano gave an invited talk at the Sugashima Marine Biological Laboratory,
Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University Symposium.
September 30th, 2018: 'Encyclopedia of Zoology' a book edited by the Zoological Society of Japan, was published.
Nakano wrote three chapters in the book (The book is in Japanese).
September 10th, 2018: Article on Japanese Xenoturbella appeared in the Excite Bit webpage.
June 6th, 2018: Nakano was awarded the Research Grant of the Izu Peninsula UNESCO Global Geopark.
May 1st, 2018: Miyazawa became a project researcher at the National Institute of Genetics.
April 1st, 2018: One new member joined our lab!
March 28th, 2018: Article on Japanese Xenoturbella appeared in the academist Journal website.
February 22-23rd, 2018: Participated in the 16th JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey held at
Misaki Marine Biological Station, the University of Tokyo.
January 30th, 2018: Our paper on the diversity of Japanese placozoans was published in Ecology & Evolution.
"Multiple surveys employing a new sample-processing protocol reveal the genetic diversity of placozoans in Japan"
January 22nd, 2018: Article on Japanese Xenoturbella appeared in the University of Tsukuba newspaper.
January 11th, 2018: Article on Japanese Xenoturbella appeared in The Mainichi newspaper.
December 28th, 2017: Article on Japanese Xenoturbella appeared in Tsukuba Science News.
December 19th, 2017: Articles on Japanese Xenoturbella appeared in newspapers Izu Shimbun and Ibaraki Shimbun.
December 18th, 2017: Our paper on Japanese Xenoturbella was published in BMC Evolutionary Biology.
"A new species of Xenoturbella from the western Pacific Ocean and the evolution of Xenoturbella"
December 13-14th, 2017: Participated in the 15th JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey held at
Ushimado Marine Institute, Okayama University.
November 21-22nd, 2017: Participated in the 14th JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey held at
Tateyama Station, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology.
October 25th-26th, 2017: All lab members participated in the 13th JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey.
September 21-23rd, 2017: At the 88th Annual Meeting of the Zoological Society of Japan,
Nakano organized a symposium:
「Marine Invertebrates -Gold Mine of the Information on Life Sciences V-」
Nakano gave a talk at a symposium:
「Discovery of Xenoturbella in Japan」
Takatani gave a talk entitled:
「Positional identity of the regenerating gut in the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus」
June 13th- September 3rd, 2017
Exhibition displaying results from the JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Surveys is held at
the National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo.
June 6th, 2017: A paper on the collaborative work with Dr. Kakui, Hokkaido University, was published.
"Habitat of a tanaidacean Apseudes nipponicus Shiino, 1937"
May 28th-June 3rd, 2017: Together with collaborators, Nakano collected Xenoturbella in Sweden.
April 1st, 2017: Two new members joined our lab!
March 27th, 2017: Bam, a former member of our lab, made a presentation at the
2017 Spring Meeting of the Japanese Society of Fisheries Sciences.
March 20th, 2017: Miyazawa made a presentation at the 69th Annual Meeting of the ZSJ Kanto Branch.
Nakano was a member of the organizing committee for the meeting.
March 6th, 2017: Nakano gave a talk at the 2nd University of Tsukuba-KEK collaborative seminar series
''Functions and shapes of life", with the title 'Mysteries of the marine placozoan lysozyme'
February 15-16th, 2017: Participated in the 12th JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey.
November 14-16, 2016: At 22nd International Congress of Zoology & 87th meeting of the Zoological Society of Japan
Nakano organized a symposium:
「Primordial Features of the Centralized Nervous System」
Nakano gave a talk at the symposium
「Placozoa: a free-living animal without nerve cells」
November 1st, 2016: Bam became an assistant professor at Faculty of Medicine, Yamanashi University.
October 11-14th, 2016: Participated in the 11th JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey.
September 21st, 2016: Nakano gave a talk at the 3rd JAMBIO International Symposium.
September 8th, 2016: Nakano gave a seminar at the 8 Universities Joint Marine Course held at
Mukaishima Marine Biological Laboratory, Hiroshima University.
August 28th-September 5th, 2016: Together with collaborators, Nakano collected Xenoturbella in Sweden.
August 26th, 2016: Miyazawa presented his results at the 18th Annual Meeting of the Society of Evolutionary Studies, Japan.
'Evolution of the Placozoan Mitochondrial Genome'
June 28th, 2016: We provided some pictures in the book 'Gakken Zukan LIVE Aquatic Organisms'.
May 26th, 2016: Nakano was one of the translation supervisors in the recently published
Japanese translation of Dr. Ross Piper's 'Animal Earth'.
May 22nd, 2016: An article (in Japanese) written by Nakano on marine invertebrate larvae
appeared on Izu-Shinbun newspaper.
May 17-18th, 2016: Participated in the 10th JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey.
March 22nd, 2016: Nakano gave a presentation on the results of the JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey
at the JAMBIO Activity Report Meeting 2016.
March 18th, 2016: Nakano gave a public lecture on placozoans at the marine course held by Shimoda city.
February 17-18th, 2016: Participated in the 9th JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey.
January 27th, 2016: Nakano was one of the supervisors in the recently published Chronological Scientific Tables 2016.
December 11th, 2015: We provided some of the crinoid pictures in the recently published book,
Evolutionary Developmental Biology of Invertebrates 6
November 12-13th, 2015: Participated in the 8th JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey.
November 8th, 2015: Bam presented his results at the below symposium and was awarded the Student Poster Award.
'Conservation of Marine Biodiversity under Global Environmental Change'
October 26-28th, 2015: Bam presented his results at the 67th Society for Biotechnology Japan Annual Meeting.
October 18-26th, 2015: Together with collaborators, Nakano collected Xenoturbella in Sweden.
September 18th, 2015: Nakano was awarded the ZSJ Young Scientists Award from the Zoological Society of Japan.
September 17-19th, 2015: At the 86th Annual Meeting of the Zoological Society of Japan,
Nakano organized a symposium:
「Marine Invertebrates -Gold Mine of the Information on Life Sciences III-
JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Surveys Special」
Nakano gave a talk at the symposium
「Japanese Association for Marine Biology and JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Surveys」
September 20th, 2015: An article (in Japanese) written by Nakano on placozoans appeared in Izu-Shinbun newspaper.
August 24th, 2015: An article on JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey appeared in JAMBIO News Letter.
July 24th, 2015: Review on Xenoturbella was published in Zoological Letters.
June 30th, 2015: Movies of Xenoturbella Nakano provided was used in a TV program.
June 24-25th, 2015: Participated in the 7th JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey.
May 20th, 2015: Paper on the JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey was published on Regional Studies in Marine Science.
「JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Surveys reveals undiscovered biodiversity around Sagami Bay」
This paper was featured on the University of Tsukuba webpage "RESEARCH".
May 18th, 2015: Nakano became an Editorial Board member for Scientific Reports.
May 13-14th, 2015: The 7th JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey was canceled due to an approaching typhoon.
March 30th, 2015: An article (in Japanese) written by Nakano on placozoans appeared on Umiushi-Tsushin.
February 12-13th, 2015: Participated in the 6th JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey.
February 10th, 2015: A Japanese book for kids Nakano helped was published.
February 1st, 2015: Nakano became an associate professor.
January 31st, 2015: Paper on ciliary band transition in the crinoid Metacrinus rotundus published in Acta Zoologica.
January 19-20th, 2015: Participated in the 5th JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey.
January 18th, 2015: An article (in Japanese) written by Nakano on crinoids appeared on Izu-Shinbun newspaper.
December 31st, 2014: Article about our research on placozoans appeared in JAMBIO News Letter.
December 8-12th, 2014: Nakano gave a talk at the OIST Winter Course OWECS2014.
December 4-5th, 2014: Participated in the 2nd JAMBIO International Symposium.
December 2-3rd, 2014: Nakano gave a talk at The 30th International Symposium in conjunction with
Award of the International Prize for Biology
November 26th, 2014: Participated in the 4th JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey.
October 2nd, 2014: Article on placozoans written by Nakano appeared in the journal 'Kagaku', Iwanami-Shoten.
September 29th, 2014: At the Tsukuba Global Science Week 2014, Aging Sciences Session, Nakano gave a talk
「Strange and simple placozoans- ‘biologically immortal’ animals?」.
September 11-13th, 2014: At the 85th Annual Meeting of the Zoological Society of Japan,
Nakano organized a symposium:
「Marine Invertebrates -Gold Mine of the Information on Life Sciences II-」
Nakano gave a talk at a symposium「Overlooked zoology: less than a few millimeters III」
entitled「Placozoa- Free-living animals without nerve cells or muscle cells」
Bam gave a talk entitled「Exploring glycosidases in Placozoa」
August 1st, 2014: Hideyuki Miyazawa joined the lab as a post-doctoral researcher.
July 9th, 2014: Article about the Japanese placozoan paper appeared in the JST web site Science Portal.
June 26th, 2014: Article about the Japanese placozoan paper appeared in June 26th morning Asahi-shinbun newspaper.
June 19th, 2014: Paper on Japanese placozoans was published on Scientific Reports.
「Survey of the Japanese Coast Reveals Abundant Placozoan Populations in the Northern Pacific Ocean」
This paper was featured on the University of Tsukuba webpage "RESEARCH".
June 19th, 2014: Nakano was awarded the Young Staffs' Special Incentive Award from the University of Tsukuba.
June 5th, 2014: Nakano gave an invited presentation titled 'Establishing an Experimental System for Japanese Placozoans'
at the Directors' Meeting of the Japanese National Marine and Inland Water Stations Mini-symposium.
May 1st, 2014: Participated in the 3rd JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey.
April 15th, 2014: Nakano was awarded the Young Scientists' Prize of the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, and Technology (MEXT).
April 7th, 2014: An article (in Japanese) written by Nakano appeared in University of Tsukuba Newspaper.
April 1st, 2014: Two new members joined the lab!
February 19-20th, 2014: Participated in the 2nd JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey.
January 23-24th, 2014: Participated in the 1st JAMBIO Coastal Organism Joint Survey.
October 4th, 2013: An article about our research appears in the book 'University of Tsukuba by AERA MOOK'.
September 26th, 2013: We organized a symposium at the 84th Annual Meeting of the Zoological Society of Japan.
「Marine Invertebrates -Gold Mine of the Information on Life Sciences-」
Nakano gave a talk at the seminar: 「Evolution and Origin of Marine Invertebrate Larvae」
September 24th, 2013: You can see pictures of our crinoid sea lilies in lab in this blog article.
August 29th, 2013: Received the Young Scientist Initiative Award from the Society of Evolutionary Studies, Japan.
June 1, 2013: Article about our research on Xenoturbella appeared in JAMBIO News Letter.
May 17th, 2013: Our research was featured on the University of Tsukuba webpage "TSUKUBA FUTURE".
A photo was also shown on the University of Tsukuba top page.
February-April, 2013: Articles about our Xenoturbella paper appeared in a number of Japanese newspapers.
Article1&2, Article3, Article4
Our paper has also received media attention in other countries as well, such as
Swedish National TV broadcaster SVT, The Huffington Post, etc.
February 26, 2013: Our paper on Xenoturbella development was published on Nature Communications.
「Xenoturbella bocki exhibits direct development with similarities to Acoelomorpha」
February 25-26, 2013: Presentation at the 1st JAMBIO International Symposium
「Development of Xenoturbella and the evolution of metazoan larvae」